Summary :
Aim: To evaluate the relationship among alveolar bone loss (ABL), bone status and calcium-regulating hormones in liver transplantees. Patients and Methods: Twenty-one liver transplantees underwent a full oral examination. The correlations among bone densitometry, bone metabolic status and drug treatment were examined. Results: Twelve patients had osteopenia, and six were osteoporotic. ABL was 4.33
2.32mm (range 0.67–9.92). Parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels ranged from 14 to 106 (mean 55.2
26.4). The mean 25(OH)D3 was 11.68
4.7, range 3.5–21.1 ng/ml. Nine patients were vitamin D deficient (o10 ng/ml); none of the patients had 25(OH)D3 levelsX30 ng/ml. No correlation was found between ABL and current or total glucocorticoids dose, although there was an inverse relation with the duration of treatment (r5 0.474, p50.03). A positive correlation was found between ABL, PTH (r50.419, p50.059) and hip bone mineral density (BMD) (r50.482, p50.027). ABL correlated closely with age, PTH, glucocorticoid treatment (duration) and hip BMD (r50.810, p50.004). Conclusions: The majority of liver transplant patients had insufficient 25(OH)D3 serum levels. Changes in calcium-regulating hormones and hip BMD were correlated with ABL. Therefore, therapeutic intervention aimed at treating vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperparathyroidism should be considered in these patients. The benefits of vitamin D treatment in the management of secondary hyperparathyroidism and possible decrease in ABL deserve further evaluation in controlled trials.

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